A dream vacation can look very different once you actually arrive, and some travelers say a few of the world’s most famous tourist cities left them feeling anything but welcome.
A viral discussion asking travelers which cities made them feel uncomfortable has sparked a flood of brutally honest responses from travelers worldwide.
But the answers were far from unanimous.
While some visitors described cold encounters, tourist resentment, and an unmistakable feeling that locals would rather see them leave, others said they experienced nothing but kindness in the same places.
Major tourist hotspots have left visitors complaining about open hostility from locals, pervasive scams, and intense overcrowding
A viral thread on Reddit’s r/AskReddit subreddit asked users, “What city did you feel unwelcome in as a tourist?”
As one of Reddit’s largest communities, r/AskReddit has millions of members, and the question drew a flood of responses from people sharing their experiences as tourists worldwide.
Barcelona was one of the destinations that repeatedly came up in the discussion, with some travelers describing an atmosphere that made them feel openly unwanted.
“Barcelona, they really don’t want tourists. The ‘tourists go home’ signs are really disheartening,” one person wrote.
Another traveler described the city as a “mixed bag,” saying the experience depended heavily on where they went.
They claimed that some locals seemed “straight up anti-social” and felt that “people could be unfriendly to tourists as well as to one another.”
Yet even within the same discussion, other travelers pushed back against that impression.
“I’m constantly in Barcelona, and this feels a bit exaggerated,” one person said, acknowledging the protests over overtourism but adding that the city itself still felt fine.
Another traveler said they had visited Barcelona multiple times and had never found the people anything but “friendly and kind.”
The disagreement may be just as revealing as the complaints themselves.
In recent years, Barcelona has been facing massive, highly visible anti-tourism and housing protests.
Kyoto surprised some visitors who expected the famously polite city to feel much warmer
Demonstrators have repeatedly marched through tourist-heavy corridors.
In a widely publicized flashpoint, disgruntled locals used water pistols to spray international tourists dining at outdoor restaurants.
Protesters have also gathered outside luxury hotels, set up protest camps in major squares like Plaça Catalunya, and marched with banners reading “Your holidays, my misery” and “Tourists go home.”
Another major destination travelers highlighted was Kyoto, which generated some of the most surprising reactions.
Several visitors said their experiences felt noticeably different from what they had expected from Japan.
“In Kyoto you may feel very unwelcome in contrast to the rest of Japan,” one traveler wrote.
Another person who said they spoke Japanese described some Kyoto residents as “pretty frosty,” while another claimed the city had a “culture of being standoffish.”
Paris is still dealing with its reputation for rude locals, but plenty of travelers say that was not their experience
One traveler went further, saying Kyoto was the “first city where I had experienced resentment from the locals,” describing encounters with pedestrians and drivers in crowded tourist areas.
But once again, other visitors had an entirely different experience.
One traveler said they and their partner attended a local concert, befriended a family, and were invited to dinner.
Another person visiting Kyoto at the time said locals were “kind and welcoming at best and indifferent at worst.”
The contrast is particularly striking because Kyoto continues to receive glowing reviews from travelers.
In Travel + Leisure’s 2026 World’s Best Awards, the Japanese city was named No. 1 in Asia and No. 2 in the world, suggesting that the online complaints represent individual experiences rather than a universal verdict on the destination.
Paris was another frequent answer, with some visitors describing encounters with locals as cold, arrogant, or dismissive even when they tried to make an effort with the language.
“Paris, horrible rude people – they’re very arrogant. I tried to make an effort to speak French and be polite but still treated rudely,” one traveler claimed.
Another simply said Paris had “made me feel unwelcome” despite having traveled extensively.
Interestingly, Paris also appears in more positive hospitality measures.
A 2026 Travel + Leisure report based on more than 100,000 customer reviews across 107 cities found that Paris ranked fourth globally for customer service, with 55.7% of analyzed reviews mentioning friendly staff and service.
The numbers show that “unfriendly” can mean something very different depending on how you measure it
Preply’s 2023 Community Spirit Index meanwhile examined 53 cities using six measures, including visitor return rates, accommodation reviews mentioning friendly staff, safety, LGBTQ+ equality, happiness, and English proficiency.
Accra reportedly scored 3.12 out of 10, followed by Marrakech at 3.69, and Mumbai at 3.91.
But even those rankings measure something different from asking whether a tourist personally felt unwelcome.
A city can score well overall while still producing frustrating experiences for individual visitors, particularly in overcrowded tourist areas.
More recent research paints an even more complicated picture.
Travel + Leisure’s 2026 ranking of the world’s friendliest cities placed Edinburgh first, followed by Hanoi and Liverpool.
Paris came in fourth, despite its long-running reputation among some travelers for being unfriendly.
So while some travelers may leave a destination convinced that the locals could not wait to see them disappear, another visitor may come away with an entirely different story.
“On my fourth trip to Barcelona four years ago, the taxi driver threw our baggage on the ground. I was shocked,” one traveler recalled
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